Are You Missing the Forest for the Trees?

At this time of the year, many of you might be kicking off new initiatives. In many businesses I work with, employees are overloaded with work. In addition to their regular duties, they are assigned to work on special projects. This poses a problem to performance.

Let me explain why.

First, when you take on too many initiatives, you dilute your efforts. It is difficult to do a good job when you can only devote just enough time to get the work done.

Second, you condition the employees to focus on getting things done rather than delivering quality results. That mindset is detrimental to the business.

To overcome this problem, you need to be more selective with where to invest your energy. How does the initiative advance the business objectives?

For example, a utility company plans to overhaul the training program for the field workers. We know that proper training enables the field workers do their work safely and efficiently. The focus of the initiative could be misguided when the business objective is not clear. What the business really wants is to avoid the cold storage of knowledge. They need training-on-demand and better yet, on-site training on-demand. They don’t need a new training program. They just need to change the format of delivery.

When you are clear on the business outcomes, you can quickly delineate the actions that are casual. You are able to filter noise and not missing the forest for the trees. Be cognizant that doing more is not necessary better.